Happening now: As World Vision child sponsorship gets started in our new Mutchenda community in Malawi, our rigs are already drilling boreholes to provide access to clean water!

Read how access to clean water can transform a community, and how you can help advocate for clean water.

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Over the Memorial Day weekend, my wife and I went camping with a group of friends in the Olympic National Forest of Washington state. Three days of food cooked over campfires, hiking, sleeping by a rushing river, and time with friends …

… three days without internet, without electricity, without showers, and with limited access to running water (which was cold).

Our water for washing, cooking, and drinking came from a spigot about a hundred yards from our campsite. As my wife was getting ready to wash our dishes after dinner on our first evening, I offered to refill our water container and was a little surprised at how she lit up at that suggestion.

So I took the container and walked the hundred yards down toward the river and restrooms, filled the container, and carried the water back up to the camp. It was heavy and the walk a little uphill, and took about five minutes round-trip that I’m not used to spending to be able to have water.

But the water was clean. It wasn’t going to make us sick. And it only took five minutes to get it! It was inconvenient, but that was all.

Around the world, 768 million people do not have access to clean water today. Many have to walk 10 or 20 or even more times farther than I did to get their water — and it’s not even potable! It can kill them and their children — kids who often have to fetch the water themselves instead of going to school.

Malawi is one of these parts of the world where water is more than inconvenient — it’s far away and it’s dangerously unclean.

On Tuesday, we introduced you to our newest community in Malawi, Mutchenda, where our sponsorship and faith work are just getting started. We’re starting work with clean water, too!

Right now in Mutchenda, there is only one source of water for every 484 people (and much of it is dirty). Working with World Vision, the community hopes to have a borehole for every 250 people — and they’ve already drilled 13!

Child sponsorship is a critical part of all of our development work in communities, and in these early stages, newly registered children are waiting and praying for the love of a sponsor. This week, we want to give Mutchenda a jumpstart by finding sponsors for 100 children!

World Vision believes that every child around the world deserves access to clean water. That’s why World Vision’s advocacy team has been instrumental in moving the Water for the World Act through Congress. Lisa Bos, one of our policy advisers in Washington, D.C., helped write it! (Read a Q&A with Lisa here).

The Water for the World Act was introduced last August. In its first seven months, 40 cosponsors signed on to show their support. In the two and a half months since our H2O:DC conference, we have seen an increase in momentum with an additional 42 cosponsors signing on to the bill. We want to use this momentum to keep the bill moving forward!

Currently, the bill is in the House Foreign Affairs committee. The next step is for the committee to review the bill so it can come to the floor for a House vote. With the upcoming fall elections, a bill's best chance to pass is before the August recess.

On May 29, we will be asking Rep. Ed Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to have the committee edit and approve the bill so it can come to the floor for a vote as soon as possible. This will be the best chance for the Water for the World Act to pass before the end of this congressional session.